Steffy: Life after Lance for Livestrong

Updated 7:25 am, Monday, October 22, 2012

Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY

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Lance Armstrong, Founder and Chairman of Livestrong attends the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in this September 22, 2010 file photo in New York. Lance Armstrong said October 17, 2012 he is stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so the group can focus on its mission instead of its founder's problems.The move came a week after the US Anti-Doping Agency released a massive report detailing allegations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams when he won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. The International Cycling Union (UCI) is under pressure to reveal how shamed US rider Lance Armstrong was able to escape detection for doping for so long. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARYTIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images less

Lance Armstrong, Founder and Chairman of Livestrong attends the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in this September 22, 2010 file photo in New York. Lance Armstrong said October 17, 2012 he is stepping ... more

It will be easier for Lance Armstrong to disassociate himself from the sport he gained fame in than from the Livestrong charity.

It will be easier for Lance Armstrong to disassociate himself from the sport he gained fame in than from the Livestrong charity.

Photo: Jack Plunkett

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Lance Armstrong competes in a triathalon earlier this month. Nike has snipped its ties to him.

Lance Armstrong competes in a triathalon earlier this month. Nike has snipped its ties to him.

Photo: Steve Ruark

Steffy: Life after Lance for Livestrong

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Will Livestrong live on?

That's the question that now faces the cancer charity founded by cyclist Lance Armstrong amid a deluge of recently released evidence that his cycling career was tainted by doping.

Livestrong, which turned charity support into a fashion craze with its yellow wristbands, now confronts a future without its famous founder. Armstrong last week said he was stepping down as chairman of the Austin-based organization.

Armstrong, who remains on the charity's board, founded Livestrong 15 years ago after beating cancer, and it became intertwined with his cycling success. Those who supported the charity may have a strong sense of loyalty not just to Livestrong, but to Armstrong himself.

"If the charity is completely wrapped around a single person, it becomes much more difficult for the charity to reinvent itself," said Vikas Mittal, a marketing professor with the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. "The process of disentangling yourself from that is slow and painful."

It's tempting to compare Armstrong's departure with that of a business losing a CEO who personifies the company, such as the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs last year.

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But while Apple wants to reassure loyal customers that it will stay true to Jobs' vision, Livestrong doesn't want to remind donors of Armstrong's doping scandal.

Armstrong has remained defiant in light of the allegations against him, but he agreed to stop fighting them, which has led to a lifelong ban from the sport he once personified.

It's far easier for him to disassociate himself from cycling, though, than it will be for him to distance himself from the Live­strong charity.

Typically, companies and organizations use celebrity endorsements to associate themselves with success, but they maintain a separate core brand. So when Tiger Woods falls from grace, Nike soldiers on, unfettered. Nike, by the way, has cut its ties with Armstrong, too.

Real name says a lot

Armstrong isn't just the public face of Live­strong, he's tied to its financial core. In fact, the real name of the Livestrong charity is the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which reported revenue of more than $42 million in 2010, the last year for which tax records are available.

"Livestrong" is essentially a brand name, and that's where things get murky.

You can, for example, go to the charity's website, livestrong.org, and find cancer information, online support and other resources. You can see how much the charity has raised for cancer research. Armstrong's picture, as of late last week, was still all over the site.

Official partner

But if you mistakenly type in livestrong.com, you wind up in a very different place. It's a for-profit website maintained by Demand Media, an online content provider and domain name service that also operates other sites such as eHow.com and Cracked.com.

On Livestrong.com, it's identified as the official partner of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The site provides healthy recipes and fitness tips.

Armstrong and his charity are investors in Demand Media, which went public last year. In exchange for stock, Demand Media got the rights to be exclusive worldwide marketer of the Live­strong brand.

I asked to speak with the foundation's chief executive, Doug Ulman, but I didn't get a reply last week.

Bigger than the man

Armstrong's disgrace as an athlete, of course, doesn't take away from the accomplishments of his charity, but Mittal said people who believed in Armstrong's accomplishments may feel betrayed. The charity must now convince them that its mission is bigger than the individual who let them down.

But it's not clear that Livestrong can truly be separate from Armstrong. While it's a charity, it's also an enterprise built on his seeming athletic success and on the story of his accomplishments in the wake of beating cancer. The charity's very name, Livestrong, is a reference to Armstrong's defiant achievements in overcoming the disease.

If Livestrong is going to find life after Lance, it's going to have to separate itself from its own history.

Loren Steffy, loren.steffy@chron.com, is the Chronicle's business columnist. His commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Follow him online at blog.chron.com/lorensteffy, www.facebook.com/LorenSteffypage and twitter.com/lsteffy.